Dr. Altintas with a student in his Manufacturing Automation Lab.

MECH Professor Yusuf Altintas, has been named the first Canadian president of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP).

CIRP takes its abbreviated name from the French acronym of College International pour la Recherche en Productique (CIRP) and is an organization that aims to promote scientific research through co-operation, as well as address issues related to modern production science and technology.

Dr. Altintas will act as the president from September 2016 to August 2017. Presidents of CIRP are elected annually in order to ensure continuous improvement and to reflect the changing needs of manufacturing science and technology.

Professor Altintas was also recently awarded the ASME William T. Ennor Manufacturing Technology Award and the NSERC Strategic Research Network in Virtual Machining Grant.

Congratulations Dr. Altintas!

Ada’s progress data from September 9th, 2016

The UBC Sailbot Ada — an autonomous sailboat designed and built by UBC students — was launched off the coast of Newfoundland with the goal of crossing the Atlantic, a feat which has been attempted by many researchers, but never accomplished. Ada made it about 800 km before being damaged in a storm on August 30th, 2016, when she lost power and was temporarily lost.

However, in a recent update, the UBC Sailbot team announced that Ada had regained life when direct sunlight hit the boat’s solar panels on Tuesday. Through the use of a satellite network, the team was then able to locate Ada near the Azores islands, an autonomous region of Portugal located in the mid-Atlantic, and about 500 km east of her last known location prior to the power failure.

The team is now hopeful that they will be able to retrieve the sailbot, however it is not yet clear how this will be achieved. On their Facebook page, the team has reached out for help, but are attempting to get a visual update on her condition before trying to orchestrate a retrieval.

Despite the damage to Ada, the team is not considering her voyage a failure, having made it further across the Atlantic and toward her goal than any other autonomous sailboat. In addition, the team plans to use the information gained from this experience to craft a new vessel.  “As a team, we have decided that we are going to build on what we learned with Ada, and build a new vessel of similar scope, an Ada 2.0, if you will,” the team said in a statement to CBC, “this boat will give us an opportunity to surpass what we achieved with Ada, and will continue UBC Sailbot’s history of achievement and excellence.”

Read the full story at CBC News Newfoundland and Labrador.

Find out more about Ada, and the UBC Sailbot team, at: ubcsailbot.org or facebook.com/ubcsailbot

Student group funding applications are now open! Student groups requesting funding and other support from the MECH Department should complete the application package and submit it by October 9th at 11:59pm. Please note that groups/teams must submit both an electronic and a hard copy to the MECH Student Services Office (CEME 2205). Late applications will not be accepted, however, hard copies will be accepted after the deadline so long as the electronic copies are sent to students@mech.ubc.ca on time.

Click here to download the application package.

To submit an application or if you have any questions, please feel free to talk to Heather in the MECH Student Services Office or email her at students@mech.ubc.ca.

Photos from Startup Canada’s announcement

Andrea Palmer-Boroski, who graduated from UBC Mechanical Engineering in 2015, has won Startup Canada’s Young Entrepreneur Award for the region of British Columbia and the North.

The Startup Canada Awards, now in their third year, aim to “celebrate and recognize those driving impact and demonstrating excellence in Canada’s entrepreneurship and innovation community.”

Palmer-Boroski has also won the Canadian arm of Start Tel Aviv, a global startup competition presented in Canada by Startup Canada and the Embassy of Israel. Each of the 31 participating countries selected its top female technology-based-startup founder under 40 years old to represent her nation in Israel.

Along with the other winners, Palmer-Boroski will travel to Tel Aviv to participate in lectures, workshops and meetings with leading Israeli investors and professionals and to attend the DLD Tel Aviv Innovation Festival, an international gathering of companies, entrepreneurs, investors, techies, scientists and others. Tel Aviv has one of the best startup ecosystems in the world, according to a 2015 report by Compass, a San Francisco-based company that provides benchmarking software to startups.

Palmer-Boroski is the CEO and founder of Awake Labs, whose first product, called Reveal, is a wearable band that measures and tracks physiological signals for anxiety. When these signals (heart rate, skin temperature and electrodermal activity) indicate that the wearer is becoming anxious, Reveal sends out an alert through its accompanying app–thereby giving the parents of a child with autism, for instance, an opportunity to prevent problem behaviors such as meltdowns.

The device also lets users tag physiological data with contextual information, which may help people better understand what triggers anxiety in themselves or others. This could be particularly beneficial for non-verbal children with autism.

Reveal was conceived in January 2015, in an undergraduate entrepreneurship course at UBC. Palmer-Boroski and her team originally envisioned their device being used by stressed workers to avoid burnout before they saw its potential value within the autism community.

Since then, Palmer-Boroski has received numerous awards for her work, including first place at the 2015 Canadian Global Impact Competition, which sought to recognize an idea that would “improve the standard of living for one million Canadians within the next three to five years through the use of technology,” and both the 2016 Satchu Prize and the 2016 Outstanding Venture Award from The Next 36, an annual development program for 36 exceptionally promising young Canadian entrepreneurs.

Startup Canada is a national, non-profit organization that works to improve the environment for entrepreneur-run businesses in Canada. Of the 2016 award-winners, Startup Canada CEO Victoria Lennox stated, “As leaders in the entrepreneurship ecosystem, they are each making Canada a better place to start and scale companies.”

Based in Vancouver, Awake Labs has eight employees and is currently testing Reveal with families in B.C. Although at this stage the device is being designed for children with autism, Palmer-Boroski sees later versions of Reveal being used by individuals of all ages with anxiety-related disorders and dementia.

The Startup Canada Awards reception for B.C. and the North is scheduled to be held on October 24 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre (Faris Room, 677 Davie Street, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6B 2G6). Start Tel Aviv will take place from September 25 to 29.

Original story from APSC News

Monday, September 26th was an exciting day for Microdermics Inc., a Vancouver based start-up and UBC spin-off co-founded by professor Boris Stoeber. The start-up was awarded first place, which includes an $110,000 cash prize, at this year’s BC Innovation Council’s (BCIC) New Ventures Competition. The competition is one of North America’s largest technology business idea competitions, which attracts BC entrepreneurs from a wide range of industries including cleantech, ICT, bioenergy, agritech, life sciences and more. The company was also awarded the CDRD Life Sciences Prize for their contribution to health-related research and product innovation.

Microdermics received the BCIC award for the development of a hollow metal microneedle injection system, a painless alternative for delivering vaccinations and therapeutics, and monitoring drugs in the bloodstream. Their product could one day replace costly, invasive hypodermic needles and improve patient comfort.

To read more about the BCIC New Ventures Competition and Microdermics’ success, visit their blog.

For more information about Microdermics, visit www.microdermics.com

Walter Mérida, P.Eng., director of the UBC Clean Energy Research Centre and a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering has been announced as a recipient of a 2017 Clean50 award under the category of Education and Thought Leadership.

The Clean50 recognizes remarkable and inspiring leaders and connects those leaders in order to bridge gaps and build connections. Their annual awards offer recognition to Canada’s leaders in sustainability and are selected from 16 diverse categories that transcend numerous industries, academia, different levels of government, thought leaders and advocates.

Award citation

A clean energy solutions developer for over 20 years, Walter is now an equal part innovation accelerator energizer bunny. He formed and led a clean-energy partnership between UBC and the Fraunhofer Society in Germany and with 23 other diverse partners. He leads a multi-institutional group (Transportation Futures) at the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions, serves as Director for the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium, the Canadian Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Association, and is one of the founders for the Institute for Breakthrough Energy Technologies in Vancouver, and oh – also oversees a Master of Engineering Leadership program in clean energy.

More information

http://cerc.ubc.ca

http://clean50.com/about-the-2017-clean-50/clean-50

Original story from APSC News

On October 18th, 2016, the Mechanical Engineering department recognized graduate and undergraduate students who have excelled in their academic programs.

For outstanding achievements in graduate studies and research, the following students received a medal and the honorary designation of Department Scholar:

Sarah Crosby
David Funes Rojas
Mehadi Hasan
Michael Karpinski-Leydier
Kui Pan
Hatef Rahmani
David Sommer
Alexander Sylvester
Hoda Talebian
Miayan Yeremi
For excellence in the undergraduate program, the department awarded certificates of achievement to the following students:

Michael Alexander Andersen
Albert Kong
Zhaoshuo Li
Daniel Benjamin Lin
David Kar Kit Luo
Jonathan Patrick Marr
Jian Lik Ng
Sophie Ramsden
Rory Alexander Smith
Sonia Ruth Taylor
Jordan Wong
Ruolan Ye
Please join us in congratulating these exceptional students!

UBC mechanical engineering professor Yusuf Altintas, P.Eng., has been awarded one of four 2016 Strategic Partnership Grants for Networks by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), valued at $5.5 million over five years.

The recipients were announced on October 19, 2016 at Carleton University by the Honourable Kirsty Duncan, Minister of Science, and the Honourable Catherine McKenna, Minister of Environment and Climate Change.

Altintas and his research partners have also received significant industry funding to complement the NSERC grant: $1.785 million from Canadian companies (Pratt & Whitney Canada, Honda Canada, Ontario Drive & Gear, Memex, Origin, CADlink and Alcoa) and $781,000 from international companies (Sandvik Sweden, Danobat, Boeing, the Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan and SIMIC Korea) over five years.

Supporting large-scale, multidisciplinary research projects that require a network approach, the Strategic Partnership Grants for Networks are intended to increase research and training in four target areas (including advanced manufacturing) “that could strongly enhance Canada’s economy, society and/or environment within the next 10 years.” Such research and training must be conducted through partnerships between academic researchers and industry or government organizations.

“Facilitating close connections and partnerships with business ensures that discovery research is enriched by industry perspectives and market needs,” says B. Mario Pinto, president of NSERC.

Altintas is the scientific director of the Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology (CANRIMT). Comprised of university researchers (17 faculty members from seven Canadian universities) and industrial partners, CANRIMT is developing mathematical simulation models integrated with software tools that are helping Canadian companies design and manufacture innovative products more cheaply and quickly. The network’s core research is carried out at UBC.

The modelling and analysis tools created by CANRIMT, which are part of a virtual machining technology platform, enable accurate computer simulations of complex machining systems. Accounting for a variety of relevant factors (including the properties of the materials being used, cutting conditions, machine tool vibration and geometry, and the computer system that controls the motion of the machine tool), these simulations allow companies to predict how real machines will interact with real work materials, correct any errors, and otherwise optimize their machining processes without conducting expensive, time-consuming physical trials.

The first phase of CANRIMT, which was awarded a Strategic Partnership Grant in 2010, produced software for 5-axis milling, drilling, turning and boring that is currently in use by the Canadian aerospace industry and is being tested for application in the automotive and machinery manufacturing industries worldwide.

In its second phase, CANRIMT aims to integrate virtual models into real-time, physical machining systems in order to create intelligent digital machining systems that cover the entire product development chain. To meet existing and growing demands in the Canadian aerospace, automotive, energy, machinery and medical device industries, CANRIMT is also working to improve the functionality and accuracy of its virtual machining technology.

In addition to encouraging collaborations between academia and industry, the partnership grants have a strong educational purpose, requiring that winning projects “offer opportunities for enhanced training of highly qualified personnel that takes advantage of the multidisciplinary and multi-sectoral environment of a network.” CANRIMT is expected to train over 85 new graduate students and engineers in network laboratories and the manufacturing facilities of its industrial partners over the next five years.

By developing the world’s most advanced virtual machining system for macro- and micro-machining operations, Altintas and his collaborators are transforming Canadian machining practices and establishing Canada as a global leader in advanced manufacturing. The other networks recognized by NSERC address such challenges as pollution, sustainable natural resource extraction and modernizing the stewardship of Canadian lakes.

Original post from APSC News.

Original story from APSC News

To read the full story please visit: Vancouver Sun

CBC featured Morgane Oger, a UBC alumna who became be the first transgender person to be nominated by a major Canadian political party as a candidate at any level of government.

Oger, who studied graduated from Mechanical Engineering at UBC in ’93, is a member of the Vancouver Board of Education’s Pride Committee and is chair of the Trans Alliance Society.

The story also appeared on Yahoo and similar stories appeared in the Vancouver Courier and Vancouver Sun.

To read the full CBC story, please visit: CBC.

Original story from APSC News.

Andrea Palmer stands with UBC President Santa Ono, Dean Marc Parlange, and other Innovate 2016 presenters.

On Tuesday, December 2016, UBC Applied Science held the third annual Innovate, a dialogue series that brings applied research to the community and provides a pathway for industry partnerships. This year’s event was co-hosted by the Faculty of Medicine, who highlighted stories of UBC-linked startups with biomedical engineering roots.

Among this year’s five presenters was MECH Alumna Andrea Palmer, founder and CEO of Awake Labs. In her presentation, Andrea discussed the work currently being done at Awake Labs. An autism health company that is committed to empowering those living on the autism spectrum, her company is responsible for the development of Reveal, a wearable that measures and tracks physiological signals in real time to help autistic people and their caregivers understand changes in behaviour.

For more about this year’s Innovate, please visit Innovate 2016.

Are you a first-year Engineering student interested in joining Mechanical Engineering? Join us for a special networking event where you’ll get to meet our students, alumni, and faculty members!

Small groups of no more than 4 students will each be matched with one current student, one alumnus and one professor so that everyone gets a chance to talk directly to the people who know the program the best. If you are considering applying for Mechanical Engineering, now is your chance to have all your questions answered from the perspectives of someone who’s in the program, someone from industry who’s been through the program, and one of your future professors.

Whether you’re 100% sure MECH is your first choice or you’re on the fence, don’t miss this excellent opportunity to get the facts and make some great contacts!

Tuesday, January 24th, 2017
5:30-7:30 pm
KAIS Atrium, 2332 Main Mall

Refreshments will be provided.

RSVP below. Spaces are limited, so register early!

Registration is now full. Email communications@mech.ubc.ca to be placed on our waitlist.

The Mechanical Engineering Department regularly hosts guided lab tours for high school students, first year students, incoming mechanical engineering students, or anyone interested in mechanical engineering. This year, we will be hosting tours on the following dates:

February 17, 2017
March 24, 2017

Come meet some of our current MECH students and get their perspective on the department and program as they show you around our facilities. See the cool gadgets our student teams are working on and learn about the many different areas in which a mechanical engineer can apply his or her knowledge. Get a look at the cutting-edge technology inside our labs and see the kinds of research mechanical engineers can do. It’s a great chance to find out what our department is all about and what you can do with a mechanical engineering degree from UBC!

For those interested, there will also be a half-hour long advising session held after the tour where participants can ask questions about admissions, curriculum, program options, etc.

If you would like to attend, please RSVP by sending an email to studentassistant@mech.ubc.ca.

The department is pleased to welcome Dr. Gareth H. McKinley to our campus for our upcoming Mechanical Engineering Distinguished Colloquium. Dr. McKinley is visiting from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he is currently the School of Engineering Professor of Teaching Innovation. He will be giving a lecture entitled “Fog, Feathers and Fluid Friction Reduction using Omniphobic Surfaces: Biomimetic Inspiration and Engineering Realization” in the Earth Sciences Building, room 2012 on Thursday, January 26 at 4:00.  

For more information about Dr. McKinley and his research, and for an abstract of his talk, please click here.

Come see what our second-year students have been building at the MECH 223 design competition on Wednesday, January 25th. This year, student teams were asked to design a Launcher and an autonomous Orbiter spacecraft capable of deploying one of a set of standard Landers and Launcher device. The primary learning focus of this year’s project is for students to become familiar with the process of developing a design which best fulfills a particular set of desired characteristics within a given set of
constraints. Students will be judged based on their methods of concept generation, concept evaluation, and prototyping.

The competition will take place in the Fred Kaiser building (2332 Main Mall), room 1180, from 11:00 am-3:00 pm. Stop by to cheer on your favorite team! All are welcome!

We’ll be posting photos of the competition after the event, so be sure to check back. Here’s two from last year’s competition, which involved vehicles that use regenerative braking!

On June 6, 2016, at the Canadian Society for Civil Engineering (CSCE) Annual Awards Banquet, MECH alumnus James (Jay) Drew received the CSCE-CANAM Award for Excellence in Civil Engineering Innovation on behalf of Lock-Block Ltd for their Arch-Lock and Zipper Truck system. Presented to an individual or group, the award recognizes an outstanding innovation in the field of civil engineering that has had a significant beneficial impact on the prosperity and well-being of society.

President of Lock-Block, Jay has received may awards and recognition for his community service and dedication to community projects, such as the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award, the R.A. Mclachlan Memorial Award, and the CBC Golden Heart Award. During his involvement with the Tetra Society chapter in Vancouver, Jay has created dozens of devices to help the disabled lead easier and more self-sufficient lives. He has donated thousands of hours to crafting unique solutions to many problems*.

Congratulations to Lock-Block on their achievement!

The full details of the award and more about the Arch-Lock and Zipper Truck system can be read in CSCE’s press release below.

Wednesday, January 25th, MECH 2 students took part in the annual MECH 223 design competition. This year, students were asked to recreate NASA’s historic 2005 Cassini mission — a mission that successfully landed a probe on Saturn’s largest moon Titan. As part of this simulation, students had to design a 3D printed Launcher and an autonomous Orbiter spacecraft capable of deploying a set of standard Landers — or probes.

Represented by balls, 20 teams had to shoot their probes across a 160 square-foot table and have it “orbit” around the fake Titan, which was simulated by a funnel. Each team was timed and graded on the machine’s ability to shoot three different-sized balls into the funnel (or Titan’s orbit).

CBC Vancouver, Global News, and the Discovery Channel were also on site to cover the event, as well as to conduct interviews with some of our professors and student teams. When asked about by CBC about the learning outcomes of this project , MECH 2 Coordinator Dr Agnes d’Entremont stated that the goal of the project was to teach students the need to minimize costs, consider weight restrictions, while ultimately ensuring maximum performance ability.

See CBC coverage of the event here. (Note: Coverage of the MECH 223 competition begins at 50:00).

See more about the competition here as well: Global News, Surrey Now

CMC Microsystems, a company that works with and supports researchers and industry across Canada’s National Design Network, recently interviewed MECH professor and co-founder Boris Stoeber on the success of his UBC based start-up Microdermics Inc. Currently, the startup is working to develop a hollow microneedle that would serve as a painless alternative to the hypodermic needle.

The article highlights the company’s recent achievements, such as winning the $110,000 first prize in the BC Innovation Council’s New Ventures BC annual competition, and discusses what makes their product so competitive.

Read the full article below.

Follow the history of Microdermics through our various stories:

UBC faculty and alumni win first and third place (and several other awards) at BCIC New Ventures Competition (September 2016)

UBC researchers develop painless and inexpensive microneedle to monitor drugs (July 2016)

To read more features from CMC Microsystems, please visit their website at: http://www.cmc.ca/NewsAndEvents/Articles.aspx

Matt Harper, MECH alumnus and co-founder of Avalon Battery, was recently named one of Business In Vancouver’s (BIV) 2016 Forty Under 40. This award was created to recognize the achievements of BC’s young entrepreneurs, executives, and professionals who have demonstrated excellence in business, judgement, leadership, and community contribution.

After graduating from MECH in 2000, Harper started off interning in the clean-tech sector at Ballard Power Systems before eventually becoming a product manager at VRB Power Systems (now Prudent Energy), and later the vice-president of product management and marketing.  In 2013, he and a number of colleagues decided to leave Prudent Energy in order to start up Avalon Battery, where Harper is now the chief product officer. Specializing in end-user focused sustainable energy storage solutions, Avalon Battery is currently developing a turnkey energy storage system.

This year’s winners were honoured at the 2016 Forty under 40 gala dinner, which was held on January 25th, 2017 at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

Congratulations Matt Harper!

Check out BIV’s feature on Harper: here.

On February 1st, 2017, the department of Mechanical Engineering recognized nine undergraduate students who excelled during their time in the MECH 2 program.  The following students achieved an over 85% average in their second year studies:

Riley Aldis
Kye Arbuckle
Jenny Chu
Carter Tung Yung Fang
Anthony Jun-Shiang Hsu
Jose Francisco Martinez Castro
Alexander Bruce von Schulmann
Kevin Ta

Please join us in congratulating these exceptional students!